Kerry Touts Vietnam Service in Newspaper Ad

Democrat John Kerry's (search) campaign took out a full-page, fund-raising ad in The New York Times on Tuesday that shows the Vietnam veteran receiving the Bronze Star and states, "He asked what he could do for his country. Then he did it."

The ad is the latest in the campaign's ongoing effort to use several types of media to raise money. Last month, Kerry ran three television ads over two weeks that appealed for cash on cable channels in five states. The Massachusetts senator also has posted fund-raising Internet ads on Web sites.

The newspaper ad details Kerry's service as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam, his anti-war protests upon returning home and his career as a prosecutor and four-term senator. The ad notes that Kerry went to Yale and volunteered for military service, and it shows Kerry in Vietnam alongside the crew of a swift boat he commanded.

"In 1968, two years after enlisting in the Navy, Yale graduate John Kerry rolled an application into his typewriter and typed out these five words: 'I request duty in Vietnam.' John Kerry's request was granted."

The ad is a subtle dig at President Bush, who also graduated from Yale but never saw combat as he served stateside in the Texas Air National Guard (search). The headline also is a variation on the famous words of the last Massachusetts senator to win the presidency — John F. Kennedy, who in his 1961 inaugural address, said, "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

Steve Schmidt, a Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman, said the ad does not address the point that "John Kerry voted for the war in Iraq but voted against the money for it."